West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin said Thursday he would vote for a government funding bill that delays Obamacare’s individual mandate for a year if it came up in the Senate, later backtracking and clarifying he doesn’t believe Obamacare should be part of the government funding showdown.

“There’s no way I could not vote for it,” Manchin said of an individual mandate delay at a Bloomberg Government breakfast Thursday, according to Bloomberg. “It’s very reasonable and sensible.”

The support defied the position of the rest of his Democratic colleagues in the Senate, who have said they would not negotiate over Obamacare in the government funding debate.

Republicans have been advocating a yearlong delay of the individual mandate, the key piece of the president’s signature health care law, as one of the possible compromises that could be reached on a continuing resolution.

Manchin on Thursday morning picked up a talking point of those Republicans in highlighting the president’s decision earlier this year to delay another piece of Obamacare, the employer mandate.

“Don’t put the mandate on the American public right now,” Manchin said, according to Bloomberg. “Give them at least a year. If you know you couldn’t bring the corporate sector, you gave them a year, don’t you think it’d be fair?”

Later in the day, Manchin put out a statement clarifying that while he is against the individual mandate, he does not believe it should be used in the spending showdown.

“I have always opposed the individual mandate, and I continue to have concerns with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act and the cost and choices West Virginians will have in the health care exchanges. That being said, I do not believe that this issue should be used to shut down the government, and I will not vote to shut down the government,” Manchin said.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a member of Senate Democratic leadership, said he spoke to Manchin Thursday and confirmed that Manchin would vote with Democrats on a continuing resolution.

Manchin’s comments came at a critical time as the Senate considers a continuing resolution sent to them by the House that funds government beyond Sept. 30 but defunds Obamacare. The Senate is expected to reject the measure and send something back to the House, likely a clean resolution, allowing the House to either pass it or come up with another compromise.

Republicans have been trying to put pressure on red-state Democrats, like Manchin, to join them against Obamacare, reminding them another on-the-record vote for Obamacare could hurt them in future elections. McConnell said earlier this week that if five Democrats join Republicans, they can overturn the bill.

Manchin was the first Democrat to signal he might consider delaying the individual mandate, before backtracking.